


Denny's Parking Lot

by lol-phan-af (lol_phan_af)



Series: ot4 Origins (1-800-did-I-ask) [16]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Blood, Multi, Punching, Violence, there's a lot of punching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 20:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7330306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lol_phan_af/pseuds/lol-phan-af
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're all sitting at a table in Denny's, and Hercules wonders if this is what happened last year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Denny's Parking Lot

It's Easter, and usually Hercules would be waking up in his childhood home to the smell of the food cooking and the feeling of sunshine in his eyes. This year, however, his parents had taken a last minute vacation, leaving Hercules on campus to spend Easter with Lafayette, John, and Alex.  
  
They're all sitting at a table in Denny's, and Hercules wonders if this is what happened last year.  
  
Alex has two pieces of bacon tucked between his gums and his upper lip. He's trying to say something without the bacon slipping or falling out, but it all comes out as incoherent whale sounds. Lafayette is pounding the table laughing, tears slipping down their face. John is trying to look like he's not laughing, but his mouth is curling up into a smile before he can stop it. Hercules has been smiling the whole time, the mystery of what happens when he's gone being solved as he watches it.  
  
One piece of bacon falls out of Alex's mouth and onto the table. John and Lafayette boo him, which makes Hercules laugh. Alex scoffs, putting his two index fingers up to all of them. He maneuvers his jaw and tongue to bring the bacon into his mouth. He looks fucking stupid. John sighs from the depths of whatever is left of his soul.  
  
"I don't know what I did to deserve this," John deadpans, staring somewhere just past Alex. Lafayette snorts, biting a piece of pancake off of their fork.  
  
"Victory!" Alex chants with a mouthful of bacon, throwing his hands in the air. John sighs again, more forcefully this time.  
  
They pay their individual checks, apologizing to the waiter for having to deal with them, and they leave. Lafayette is telling them a story about something when Hercules places a hand over their chest to stop them from walking any further.  
  
There's about a crowd of about ten people gathered around two other guys. One is having his shoulders massaged by a very short woman who has to reach up to even touch his shoulders and the other is bouncing on the balls of his feet. The guy not being massaged is throwing mock punches to the air, his muscular arms moving quickly. The other is just glaring. Massage Guy shrugs the woman's hands off of his shoulders and stalks towards the other one, getting very close to his face.  
  
"You're gonna be sorry you were ev-" Massage Guy is cut off by the other man punching him in the face. His glasses break, falling onto the ground quicker than he does. Massage Guy curls up into a ball, holding his cheek and screaming.  
  
"This is the best thing I have ever seen," Alex says, laughing. John laughs with him, pressing his face into Alex's shoulder.  
  
"You think that's funny?" The other guy asks, walking up to Alex until the concept of personal space was all but nonexistent. Alex should probably be afraid, but his sputtering laughter can still be heard even as everyone else is silent.  
  
"I just think it's kind of hilarious that you just kind of shrekt him like that," Alex says. Hercules thinks that this is a little ridiculous, that he should be taking John, Lafayette, and Alex home to lie in what is pretty much their bed until it was time to come back out again for lunch.  
  
"Who wants to go next?" The guy asked, throwing his hands out on either side of him, backing away from Alex and gesturing to the crowd. Hercules is about to say how they should go when Alex runs to the center of the circle.  
  
"Me," he says, and Lafayette sighs. The crowd is cheering now, and the guy is circling Alex like a vulture. The guy brings his hand up, curled into a fist.  
  
"No!" John screams, running out to the guy. Before Hercules can even blink, John punches the guy. He doesn't look hurt when John punches him. He doubles back on the force in which John punched him when he retaliates. You can hear John's jaw crack as it happens, Alex's gasp accompanying it like a symphony Hercules does not want to be at.  
  
"Hercules," Lafayette whispers, gripping his arm as tight as they can. They flinch as the guy kicks John in the ribs. Hercules shudders when Lafayette's face burrows into Hercules' shoulder, feeling their tears through the thin jacket he's wearing.  
  
The guy doesn't stop with John. He swings at Alex, the force of the impact knocking Alex on the ground. John is shaking. Alex is completely still. He's lying on his back, staring upwards at the sky. The people that are standing above him are whispering among themselves as they stare at him. The guy is celebrating his win, high fiving anyone with their hand up. He's laughing.  
  
There's three bodies on the ground, and this man is walking in between them like their blood isn't staining the bottoms of his shoes.  
  
Hercules wants to go up to the guy and dropkick him into the fucking sun, but Lafayette's hand is holding on tighter. Hercules isn't sure if it's because they know what Hercules wants to do or if they want to do the same thing. Maybe it's just because they're as scared as he is. Maybe.  
  
When Alex stands up, despite the fact that his nose is bleeding and there are small rocks digging into his skin, the whole crowd stops their jeering. The guy swivels to face him. He's still laughing.  
  
"Ready for round two?" They guy asks, smirking. Alex spits out the blood that's flowing into his mouth. There's something different now, something inhuman in the way he moves, in the way he's looking at him. Hercules watches the other guy, watches him notice it too. Hercules watches as the fear seeps into his skin and doesn't stop until it hits bone marrow. He swallows.  
  
Alex crosses the distance between them, his fists clenched as he corners him. He gets closer and closer until the guy's back is almost pressed against someone else's chest behind him.  
  
"Are you?" Alex asks, voice terrifying quiet.  
  
It happens before Hercules can register it.  
  
Alex jabs him in the throat, grabbing him by the hair with his other hand. He hauls the guy down as he knees upward, the two slamming together. The guy falls onto the ground, and Alex repeats his action of kicking him in the ribs. He does it repeatedly until Lafayette runs out to stop him, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him.  
  
"Alex," Lafayette whispers, tears still flowing down their face.  
  
Alex's nose is still bleeding.  
  
Alex looks at Lafayette but Hercules doesn't think he really sees them. He turns out of their hold, going over to John who is still lying on the ground. He doesn't hesitate before he picks John up, carrying him all the way back to Lafayette's car.  
  
John and Alex fall asleep on the way home. Blood drips down the side of John's mouth and onto his shirt. Alex's hands falls to his side from where it was previously squeezing the bridge of his nose. Lafayette stares at them from the passenger seat. They turn around to stare at the road in front of them.  
  
"They're gonna be okay," Hercules whispers.  
  
"How do you know?" Lafayette asks, their voice raw.  
  
"Because they have us," Hercules says, parking the car in the lot.  
  
\---  
  
The first thing that John feels when he wakes up is Alex's arms secured tightly around John's hips. The second thing he feels is pain. A lot of pain.  
  
There's a ziploc bag of ice taped onto his ribs with surgical tape. Bandages wrap around his torso to keep the ice on him even if the tape unfastens. There's a two hearts drawn onto the bandages over the ice pack in permanent marker.  
  
"Where is everyone?" Alex asks, and John almost laughs at how nasally his voice sounds before he sees the reason.  
  
Alex has a binder clip on his nose, squeezing it shut. Lafayette's eye mask is covering his eyes, protecting them from the cold of the bag of ice draped and taped over his cheeks and nose. There's two Hello Kitty band-aids on Alex's jaw. John can feel the plastic rubbing of even more band-aids on the backs of Alex's arms.  
  
"I'm not sure," John responds.  
  
"Do you think that they're mad at us?" Alex asks, his voice quieter.  
  
"I'm not sure," John whispers again, running his hands through Alex's hair.  
  
Keys are shoved into the lock, and Alex and John both simultaneously close their eyes, hoping that Lafayette and Hercules didn't hear their conversation.  
  
"They're still asleep," Hercules says, setting down a bag of something on Alex's desk.  
  
"Should we be worried about that?" Lafayette asks.  
  
"Maybe. How long has Alex's nose been clipped?"  
  
"He still has three minutes left before we have to check and John still has eight. We really weren't gone that long," Lafayette responds, their voice muffled behind the rustling of the bag.  
  
"I don't know how they get themselves into these situations," Hercules says.  
  
"They're reckless."  
  
"Yeah," he pauses, "but we love them anyway." Alex's arms tense from where they're still on his hips. Lafayette huffs out of their nose. John can practically see the smile on their face.  
  
"Do you think they'll ever know?" Lafayette asks. There's a sound of cardboard moving around and then the smell of Chinese food hits his nose.  
  
"Not if we don't tell them," Hercules responds.  
  
"I can't handle that."  
  
"We'll have to someday." Lafayette scoffs.  
  
"What happens if we don't?" They ask, and Hercules is silent.  
  
"We lose them," He whispers. He sounds hurt, like it physically pains him to say it. John wants to sit up, wants to scream at the top of his lungs that they'll never lose him. He wants to yell about how if they would let him, John would kiss them and never stop. John just wants to be with them, but instead he's lying with his broken ribs and his pain.  
  
"I'm afraid to tell them," Lafayette says.  
  
"Me too."  
  
John goes back to sleep.  

**Author's Note:**

> I just used shrekt as a verb,,,,


End file.
